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The Early Years

Speakers and audience at a YIVO conference, Vilna, 1929. Among the prominent scholarsand
activists seated on the dias are Dr. Tzemach Shabad, physician, Founder
and first Chair of the Society of the Friends of YIVO (with white
beard) and (2nd to his left) Yiddish playwright Peretz Hirschbein. (YIVO Archives)

YIVO was founded as the Yiddish Scientific Institute (Yidisher
visnshaftlekher institut) in 1925 by scholars in Berlin and Vilna (Pol.
Wilno, Lith. Vilnius), Poland. The scholars, who envisioned an academic
institution dedicated to the study of Yiddish and East European Jewish
culture, chose Vilna, then an important center of Yiddish culture, as
its site. The new institute soon became known by its acronym, "YIVO."
Today, YIVO is formally known as the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Though they lived in swiftly changing times, YIVO's founders had
faith in the continuity of Jewish culture. They approached the study of
both the past and the present from a modern perspective, aiming at the
highest standards of scholarly objectivity. YIVO was soon known
worldwide for the quality and originality of its scholarship. During
its first fifteen years of existence, the institute published over one
hundred volumes of research studies in the social sciences and
humanities.

YIVO was embraced not only by scholars, but also by ordinary Jews, who saw the institute as a focus of national pride. Amateur zamlers (collectors)
from all over Poland, other European countries, and the Americas
gathered books, manuscripts, photographs, posters, snippets of
folklore, and other artifacts and sent them to YIVO, proud to be taking
part in building a national treasury of Jewish culture. Their
contributions helped YIVO amass an important library and archives, which today constitute the world's largest collection of materials relating to the history of East European Jewry.

One reason for YIVO's popularity with the public was the institute's commitment to using Yiddish,
the everyday language of East European Jews, as its official language
for business and scholarship. YIVO's founders and activists considered
the development of scholarship in Yiddish as the vehicle for the
cultural and spiritual blossoming of the Jewish people. YIVO ran
special courses for teachers from Yiddish-language schools. It
developed standards for Yiddish spelling and transliteration which are still widely in use today.